Ruffled Flowers

I was sorting out my woodblock stamps and came across a flower I love but haven't used in a while. Since I needed to make a couple of cards I embossed the flowers four times, trimmed them to the sizes I wanted and applied distress inks (dried marigold for the first card and a mix of shabby shutters, salty ocean and tumbled glass for the second one).

Stamps - Ruffled Flower (Hero Arts) & It's Your Day (Hero Arts)
Dies - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp) & Tags and Bookplates (Docrafts)

The background for this card was made by dragging a Hero Arts mint to green ombre ink pad across white card a few times. After cutting the background into panels I used a die from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes to add the stitch lines. The sentiment was embossed in gold on a die cut from Docrafts Tags and Bookplates die set. A little sparkle was added to the flower with diamond stickles and some gems. I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp's Ombre Challenge.

For the next card I used up scraps of silver glitter card I had left over from making Christmas cards. I just cut strips of the card to go behind the flower and used it for the die cut sentiment too.

Stamp - Ruffled Flower (Hero Arts)
Die - Thanks Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)

A sprinkling of sequins and gems were added for a little sparkle.

Playing with Plaid

It was such a scramble before Christmas trying to make all my Christmas cards so I've decided to join in on the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenges as much as possible this year.

Since I had a bit of time to make a card I decided to join in on the challenge this week. The challenge is Plaid.

Well I searched high and low to see if I had any plaid items like paper, ribbon or even stamps that could be used to make a plaid pattern, and I came up with nothing! Then I remembered this rag quilt I made last year

and after a little hunt for scraps of leftover fabric, I came up with some bits and pieces for my card. Now what to do with them! In the end I decided to make a cosy hat a scarf for a cute Hero Arts snowman and also use the fabric for borders. Thanks again to my friend Linda for giving me the the snowman stamp and die sets:) She's another big fan of the Merry Monday Challenges and first introduced me to the Merry Monday Challenges.

Stamps - Frosty Wishes (Hero Arts) and Polar Set by Lia (Hero Arts)
Die set - Snowman Die Cuts (Hero Arts)
Embossing Folder - Snowflakes (Cuttlebug)

I started by heat embossing the sentiment on a panel of card and added an embossed snowbank which has touches of diamond stickles on the snowflakes. Sorry the photo isn't great - it's a really dull day here today. Then I stamped and cut out the snowman, did a little colouring with Promarkers and added the die cut plaid hat and scarf. To finish I frayed a couple of strips of fabric and used them as borders.

As I had a variety of plaid strips left over from the quilt I also die cut hats and scarves in a couple of other colours. I hope to make another couple of snowmen cards during the week to get a good start on my Christmas card stash.

Ombre Butterflies

I love the ombre look on cards, clothes, hair etc. so I wanted to join in on Simon Says Stamp's Ombre Challenge. Anyway I thought I'd use some distress inks to make an ombre background. As I seem to have a lot of blues in my stash (no surprise there!) I used tumbled glass, broken china, faded jeans and salty ocean for this card.

Supplies - It's Your Day (Hero Arts), M-Bossabilities Bricks and Bark (Spellbinders), Isabella & Pippi butterfly dies (Memory Box) and distress inks (Tim Holtz/Ranger)

To start with I die cut a circle from a panel of white card and embossed the panel with the aperture. Then I inked a panel of white card with the distress inks and after stamping the sentiment adhered it to my cardbase. The embossed panel was then adhered to the card. I die cut the butterflies from scraps of white card and pieces leftover from the inked background. To finish I added a gems to the butterflies' bodies.

Making the card was the enjoyable part of the day and now I'm off to do the not so enjoyable bit - washing machine shopping as our current machine has given up the ghost. Exciting shopping here I come!?!